The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[BukyOHare]

I still can't fathom how we managed to make Muirhead and Brownlie look like Baresi and Maldini in their prime.

 

[Iain]

6 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I still can't fathom how we managed to make Muirhead and Brownlie look like Baresi and Maldini in their prime.

 

Was quite clear during the game that Thistle had both a plan to emphasise what their players do well and manipulate our players into unfavourable situations. Ayr played like they had no idea who would be in the Thistle team, what their weaknesses were or how to exploit them.

[D'Jaffo]

8 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I still can't fathom how we managed to make Muirhead and Brownlie look like Baresi and Maldini in their prime.

 

We had no presence up front. That was always going to be the issue without Dipo. They aren’t very good but they have experience and handled McKenzie exactly the way you’d expect. 

[Crawford]

Just now, Iain said:

Was quite clear during the game that Thistle had both a plan to emphasise what their players do well and manipulate our players into unfavourable situations. Ayr played like they had no idea who would be in the Thistle team, what their weaknesses were or how to exploit them.

Every time Ayr came froward no one attacked the ball. Every cross came to nothing and thistle nailed you on the counter. 2 of their goals came within 1 minute of a goal scoring opportunity for Ayr.

[Shibuya]

Anybody been on the hunt in the Conference South and identified our new striker? We badly need two of them with Dipo possibly having played his last game for us. 

[BukyOHare]

4 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

We had no presence up front. That was always going to be the issue without Dipo. They aren’t very good but they have experience and handled McKenzie exactly the way you’d expect. 

We knew there was a big chance Dipo wasn't going to make it so I'd have hoped the likes of O'Connor, Mullin and Maguire could've had more of a say in the final third than they did. The fact they weren't is on the coaching staff.

McKenzie, like Hewitt, was sacrificed last night in a put together effort to make the 2nd leg meaningful.

The three I've already mentioned plus Dempsey and Murdoch were chasing shadows for large spells of the game and second half in particular.

[Frosty]

43 minutes ago, Iain said:

It was McGinty who played the god awful clearance that made the first goal possible

The clearance could have been better but he was tidying up after Thistle had skinned Reading to set up a chance initially and then from the clearance they came back and repeated the performance on Reading and added Mullin as well for good measure. Reading’s fault with an assist from Mullin for me.

[BukyOHare]

35 minutes ago, Shibuya said:

Anybody been on the hunt in the Conference South and identified our new striker?

Don't even suggest it. 200 pages on this thread of the life and times of Burnley youth players from back in the day cannot be encouraged.

[Shibuya]

5 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

Don't even suggest it. 200 pages on this thread of the life and times of Burnley youth players from back in the day cannot be encouraged.

Wonder what happened to Gomez, Mancini or whatever his name was!

Genuinely feart for next season with this group of players, I fear an Arbroath coming on. 

[BukyOHare]

12 minutes ago, Shibuya said:

Wonder what happened to Gomez, Mancini or whatever his name was!

Genuinely feart for next season with this group of players, I fear an Arbroath coming on. 

It felt like we knew what Rob Harker had for his dinner on a Thursday night at one point.

If we keep up the standards of our recent recruitment, I think we can be competitive again. No reason why not, especially if we can increase the budget too.

[UpInTheAyr]

3 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

If we keep up the standards of our recent recruitment, I think we can be competitive again. No reason why not, especially if we can increase the budget too.

Indeed, anything less and Bullen won't last till Xmas. And if he hasn't identified the fullbacks as his first priority and perseveres as is then he's just signing his own P45.

[Rugbypark]

A once on a generation chance gone. Looks like I won’t live to see you up in the top league with us. Shame. 

[diegomarahenry]

2 hours ago, eez-eh said:

I can only imagine the reaction on here if we’d gone with Ashford up front on his own to hold the ball up.

When we play 4-4-2 and it doesn’t work people say we’re too open and can’t control the game. When we play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and it doesn’t work people say we’re isolating the striker too much and point to our great early season form coming while we played 2 up front.

The above doesn’t excuse our tactical failings, but the flip-flopping from one week to another gets tedious (which I don’t mean as a dig towards anyone because I’ve done it as well) and it’s too simplistic to put it all down to a formation. Re-jigging the shape doesn’t suddenly make Paddy Reading a good Championship left-back or give Chris Maguire his legs back.

McGuire was up front as well, We had two forwards who are identical and that doesn't work. We have two identical central midfielders and that doesn't work. 

McKenzie is more of a penalty box forward, he needs to play with someone who can allow him to find space, that is more Ashfords game than McGuire's. 

You are describing the formations like we can't change them to suit the opposition, we can but we don't and thats the problem we have had all season. 

Against Thistle, we needed 3 in the middle of the park, We didn't do it in the last game at Somerset and got cuffed, the fact we did it again last night is criminal. 

[eez-eh]

16 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

McGuire was up front as well, We had two forwards who are identical and that doesn't work. We have two identical central midfielders and that doesn't work. 

McKenzie is more of a penalty box forward, he needs to play with someone who can allow him to find space, that is more Ashfords game than McGuire's. 

You are describing the formations like we can't change them to suit the opposition, we can but we don't and thats the problem we have had all season. 

Against Thistle, we needed 3 in the middle of the park, We didn't do it in the last game at Somerset and got cuffed, the fact we did it again last night is criminal. 

There isn’t a planet in the universe where McKenzie and Maguire can be describe as identical types of forward.

I really doubt a front two of McKenzie and Ashford would have yielded a drastically different outcome. They’ve managed 6 goals between them this season. You’d just be saying the same things but swapping Maguire’s and Ashford’s names about.

[edinburghhonestman]

3 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

I appreciate others see the game differently but McKenzie was so isolated at times that to my mind he was playing up front by himself.

 

In the first 10-15 minutes he wasn't isolated and O'Connor, Mullin and McGuire were all getting close enough to provide support. The Thistle goal seemed to deflate us and we just didn't maintain that bar a spell towards the end of the first half 

We didn't start the second half at all and Thistle were 3 up before we got a kick. It was only the final 5-10 minutes when we got any support to the striker 

As has been said, we're hopeless at stopping crosses in to the box. Both centre backs are fine when teams attack us centrally but the full back weakness needs to be sorted next season.

I also think we could do with a bit of an enforcer in midfield. Dempsey and Murdoch are fine at this level but we're too soft.

I also think we need two strikers up front next season. We can't assume we'll have another 20 goal number 9.

 

 

 

[D'Jaffo]

FWIW that was Maguires best game by a country mile (maybe besides Cove but in that game it was more about individual moments). In the first 15 minutes before the goal he looked like he was right up for it and was breaking up attacks and starting moves to good effect. 
 

He drifted out towards the end of the first half but he was doing well up to that point. As a signing on the whole though it hasn’t worked out at all. 

[UpInTheAyr]

Only just watched his interview, not agreeing that it's just down to mindset now, just sounds like birthday card pish. He does look quite sullen though, that I've not seen from him before, and at least he's aware of the issues with the defence. So hope for next season with it.

[diegomarahenry]

9 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

There isn’t a planet in the universe where McKenzie and Maguire can be describe as identical types of forward.

I really doubt a front two of McKenzie and Ashford would have yielded a drastically different outcome. They’ve managed 6 goals between them this season. You’d just be saying the same things but swapping Maguire’s and Ashford’s names about.

Are either McKenzie and McGuire described as a target man? or are they ball carriers? or are they like Moffat and beat players in a foot race or take defenders for a walk? Or are they both predominantly, fairly static ball to feet, penalty box forwards

Ashford is a completely different forward, a nuisance who closes down defenders and does a power of work. He's not likely get close to scoring anything so needs to bring other players in to the game and create space for others. Which is ideal when you have supporting players like Mullen and O'Conner. 

McGuire has yet to score so your last point doesn't hold much weight.  

[North British 2]

It's all been said on here a hundred times , we need two 6ft full backs , two forwards and something different in midfield .... I think everyone agrees on that . They'll need to be of starter quality . At the moment we have several who are at L1 level , that fact we got second spot and bagged the prize money we did is a minor miracle.  Doing something in the play offs was always going to be a through of the dice . Without Dipo forget it .

Next week I'd throw caution to the wind : Bryden , Smith , Kirk , Ashford and McAllister all to start.  Let's see if we can battle a draw out the game or even squeeze a 1-0 . Pride needs to be restored. 

[No_Problemo]

17 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Are either McKenzie and McGuire described as a target man? or are they ball carriers? or are they like Moffat and beat players in a foot race or take defenders for a walk? Or are they both predominantly, fairly static ball to feet, penalty box forwards

Ashford is a completely different forward, a nuisance who closes down defenders and does a power of work. He's not likely get close to scoring anything so needs to bring other players in to the game and create space for others. Which is ideal when you have supporting players like Mullen and O'Conner. 

McGuire has yet to score so your last point doesn't hold much weight.  

Maguire and McKenzie are completely different though - Maguire is more of a ten style player who wants to get on the ball deeper and make things happen. McKenzie is more of a target that can drift out wide at times too. Ashford and McKenzie are more similar in style but still  different IMO. 

Anyway, that AU Media interview was infuriating - all we needed was a question on Dipo being back next week but nope, didn’t happen…